[north]

There is no official document of convertibles not having the lower rear molding discontinued. My opinion is simply because I’ve seen so many examples of late production convertibles that clearly had them factory installed over almost 40 years in the hobby and lots and lots of boneyarding back in the late 70’s through the early 90’s.

As a matter of fact I have never seen a 69 convertible with virgin quarters without evidence that the moldings were there from the factory.

The reason I believe you see some without them is because that area was so rot prone that most convertibles in circulation today have either had quarters replaced or at least patched in that extremely rust prone area. When most of these cars in the salt belt were getting their first body repairs back in the 70’s the clips or studs were already rusting away or in many cases the whole area was rusted out. Many of those early body jobs resulted in incorrectly shaped lower quarters so for many reasons the moldings were chucked. So most restorers were restoring cars that had non original sheet metal or bondi in those areas.

By contrast the outer rocker panels are made of galvanized steel and so even in the rust belt never rusted enough that the rocker Molding was loose or that the rocker shape prevented their reinstall.

Can anyone chime in with a 69 convertible that has clearly original unrestored lower 1/4 rears that don’t have any signs of the clips, oval holes or pins?

As for dealers adding them I can see that but no dealer could have done it in a way that would look factory installed on close inspection.